Today, businesses are embracing digital solutions and services much faster than anticipated, and much in part impacted by the pandemic. As a result, businesses across the world are having to try out catch-up and convert their operations simply to meet up with the growing demands of their digitally empowered customers, associates and stakeholders.
PR is no exception. Whether you’re in-house or outsourcing to a traditional agency, digital transformation has changed the process of delivering press campaigns. With technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), operation intelligence (OI) or machine learning (ML)making their way into the industry heavy and fast, everything you do – from improved personnel training to employing the right expertise – will have an impact on your digital change journey.
To make sure your organisation, firm or PR team is successful, you’ll need to foster an enterprise-wide digital culture – securing investment, promoting agile business processes, and adopting and employing new technology to help you find out more about your consumers.
Here’s a six steps to digital transformation in PR:
Ensure management are committed
Digital transformation starts at the very top. If your management team (especially your C-suite, Marketing communications and Marketing Managers) aren’t on board, you’ll find it very difficult to launch and maintain enterprise-wide change.
Secure investment
Partnering with an external PR service-provider or specialist with smaller contract terms and defined deliverables can benefit the digital changeover. With the right expertise and understanding of how the media determines what is newsworthy, smaller companies and startups can create campaigns to attract investors and influence stakeholders using influential media outlets.
Promote an agile work environment
Digital workplaces must be agile to be able to endure – especially when change is the one constant. To attain ongoing change – and match your rivals and customers – you’ll need to look at and promote an agile work place led by technologists and futurists. Put your technology, IT, development, communications and sales groups together for regular brainstorming and networking, or create jobs for different departments to interact.
Foster an electronic culture
An agile work environment can help foster an enterprise-wide digital culture – even in non-digital or tech-savvy departments. Because it’s a very important factor to look at new solutions, but it’s another to permit your employees with a culture that is intensifying and passionate about technological change. While your clients, products may not scream ‘progressive’, with the right digital culture and creative ability, you’ll have the ability to change customer perceptions about your brand.
Adopt and put into practice new technologies
With an agile workforce, a digital culture, and support from senior management, you’ll prepare yourself to look at and apply new solutions like robotics, automation, artificial brains and machine-learning. Find out which technologies will be the right for you and your company or section. In PR, marketing and corporate marketing communications, new technologies provide analytic review of processes in real-time and allow teams to proactively push brand messaging across social media outlets, like never before. Content optimisation, SEO and software-based sales strategies will become your most significant technology asset.
Train your team
Technology is often changing – and bettering – so it’s important to train and retrain your personnel every few months. With a skilled and knowledgeable labor force empowered by technology, you’ll not only outsmart your competition, you’ll attract more consumers and increased media attention. Whether or not you’re as yet not known as an ground breaking or future-focused brand, the more technologically empowered you are, the better off you’ll be facing troubles and disruptions in the foreseeable future.